


Two Minds

by SchrodingersKitten



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cherub Biology, Fantastic Racism, Jujus, Multi, Science
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-04-25 22:42:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4979446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SchrodingersKitten/pseuds/SchrodingersKitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roxy and Dirk have to help their friend escape her wicked brother, who just so happens to share her body, and who could easily destroy their world, and a number of other terrible things are going on, and basically it all sucks.</p><p>An excuse to explore cherub biology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Calliope's movements were slow and calculating. She lifted her rook, moved it forward three. “Your hands are shaking more,” Roxy noted, “are you sure you're getting enough sugar?” Calliope swallowed hard and nodded, “The time of predomination is approaching. Our body is tearing itself apart trying to go through puberty.” They tried not to talk of predomination. It worried Calliope. It worried everyone.

Roxy took Calliope's scaly hand. It was unexpectedly hot. One would assume Calliope would be cold blooded due to her reptilian appearance, but her body generated far more heat than a human's would, her skin burning at a little over 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The air conditioner was kept low for her comfort.

They sat there, hand in hand, playing their game for hours, only opening their mouths to take a sip of the Pepsi Roxy had brought. Eventually, Roxy spoke up. “They tell me that if you can keep control of the body for long periods of time, they'll let you go out along with an escort.” Calliope took a few deep breaths, “that's not going to happen. I'm losing too much energy.” Five minutes passed before Roxy spoke again. “Aren't you supposed to be the optimist?”

 

Roxy had recently turned 20. She and her twin brother had been raised alongside the cherubim since they were three. Their mother was one of those tasked with studying the captured aliens after the Tokyo Incident, and she had allowed her children to play with the cherubim (under close supervision) to see how they interacted with humans. After years, the children became close to the girl, Calliope, while developing a loathing for her brother, Caliborn. As of last year, they were appointed as the caretakers of the younger cherubim, being the only two humans both of them trusted.

Roxy went through the files again, for maybe the ten millionth time in her life. She wanted to know everything about Calliope, wanted to understand her. Nutritional information, biological information, psychological information, likes and dislikes, everything that had been gathered on the cherubim was written in those files. How they couldn't love like a human loved. How their bodies healed fifty times faster than a human's did, and how most deep tissue scars would fade over the course of weeks. How the same part of their brain that controls their social decisions controls the amount of chlorophyll and hemoglobin in their blood. Their split personality, and the destruction a malevolent cherub can cause.

Roxy closed the file. She knew more about cherubs than any human alive. These scientists weren't going to tell her anything about her friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, yeah, there is very little cherub-centric stuff in the Homestuck fandom, not sure why. Cherubs are hella interesting. Trolls still exist in this AU, but they won't be major. At the most, they'll be mentioned in the background.
> 
> I've had a lot of ideas about Cherub anatomy and psychology and I'm eager to get it all out there.


	2. Chapter 2

Dirk pulled up a chair in the interrogation room. That's what he always called this room, anyway. He had no idea what the scientists named it. White walls, a table with two chairs, and a one way mirror. This is where they brought Caliborn for a time out.

“So, they tell me you've been a brat,” Dirk started. Caliborn looked ready to tear him to shreds, but his wrist was chained to the table, which was bolted to the floor. He instead settled for yelling, “IT'S NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS.” Dirk took a deep breath, “yeah, Caliborn, it is my damn business. You see, I had to pull a lot of strings to get you and your sister that loft. You can't just go wrecking it because someone didn't do what you asked.” “They didn't give me enough meat! I thought humans didn't believe in starving prisoners?” Dirk sighed and slid his shades off his face. “Look, man, cut it with all the “you humans” shit. You were raised by humans. Cherubs probably don't even take prisoners, much less treat them differently from human prisoners. And besides that, they weren't allowed to give you more meat. The foundation has a limited amount of money to buy a certain amount of rations for you and your sister-” he was cut off by Caliborn, “don't call her my sister.” Dirk looked him in the eye for a long time. “I don't know how to deal with you, man. I'm sorry. Hope you don't starve or something,” and he simply got up and left Caliborn chained to the table.

 

He found Roxy waiting in the cherubim's loft. An entire wall made of glass led out onto the balcony. It helped keep the cherubim fed through photosynthesis. Roxy sat up, “is Callie coming up or Caliborn?” Dirk sat down on the long couch next to her. Stuffing had been ripped out and the cushions were now deflated, but most of the mess had been cleaned up. At least the glass and blood was gone. “Not sure,” he said, “Caliborn was awake and fired up when I was down there, but you could tell he was worn out. He might fall asleep before they head back up. Maybe he's serious, we should see about getting them more food or something.” Roxy shook her head, “No, I think that's just what puberty is like for them.” Neither of them wanted to think about what else puberty entailed.

Roxy walked up the stairs to the game room. Untouched, of course. She walked over to the chess table reserved especially for the cherubim. Alongside the table was the notebook where the Calliope and Caliborn wrote down their moves and messages to each other. Roxy read a few of their notes, a mix of death threats and scoldings, two hands shared between one body, Caliborn's large and shaky print, Calliope's small, elegant cursive. On the other side of their room was Caliborn's juju, a giant red lollipop. It was indestructible and unstealable. Calliope had a matching green one, once.

She heard billiard balls clacking together. Dirk had followed her up and went straight to the pool table. Roxy sometimes wondered why they liked games so much. Maybe it was instinctual. Space must be a pretty boring place.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WORLD BUILDING

Roxy walked out of the J. Egbert Memorial Hospital and into the autumn cold. The hospital was just a front, of course. This whole town was a front. Veil, Alaska, a town founded to study the mysterious thawing of permafrost in the area. That's what they told the public, at least. There weren't many questions as to why government money would be spent on such mundane research right on the heels of the Tokyo Incident. From the outside, the glass wall of the loft was glaringly obvious. The government passed it off as pricey rooming for "a single patient in need of specialized care". Roxy supposed that much was true.

The frost crunched under her feet as Roxy walked home. She needed a drink.

Calliope huddled in her blankets. She had never needed them before this week. Every day it become a little harder to think clearly. Doctor Eternity was on the television in the game room. A copy of the Quran and Poetic Edda was on her bedside table, pages torn out by her brother.

She slept.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sexy shower time with Caliborn and Dirk!

Caliborn and Dirk sat in the shower. "We wouldn't have to do this if you could just control yourself," Dirk said. Caliborn was silent. He looked to be on the verge of a temper tantrum. The wounds on his arm had caked over red. The stitches were unprofessional; the medical care provided to the cherubim was always sub par.

Caliborn had stabbed himself over and over again over some nonsense. No one even knew what. Dirk doubted Caliborn even knew. He couldn't even be trusted to take care of himself, so he had to have someone watching him at all times. Someone who he wouldn't immediately attack. Enter Dirk.

So here they were, sitting in what resembled a locker room shower, freezing cold water washing over their naked bodies. When he was undressed, it was very clear just how alien Caliborn was.

His bones jutted out from his olive green skin, joints twisting with every motion. He looked to be on the brink of death, like a man who had been lost in desert for years. Thick scales of keratin covered him from head to toe, blurring the image of the smooth green skin beneath. In between the smooth cliffs of his hipbones, was a small opening. It was a urethra, with no sexual purpose whatsoever. No one knew how cherubim reproduce. His thin, skeletal hands and feet were tipped with green claws, like those of a cat, but not retractable. Save the urethral slit and fresh wounds, the scaly skin was entirely unblemished. No acne, no nipples, nothing. It was as if his body was a blank piece of paper.

"You gonna say something?"

In a flash, Dirk was on his back, Caliborn on top of him. Claws scratched at his biceps. A sharp pain. Caliborn had bitten into Dirk's shoulder, teeth going straight through to bone. Dirk screamed in pain, struggled. He knew better than to thrash, that Caliborn's teeth would only sink in deeper, but he didn't know how to fight a cherub, didn't know how to dislodge the deadly fangs without destroying his own shoulder. There was something odd about Caliborn now. He wasn't shaking like he had been these past few months. His skin seemed to crackle with some strange energy, little rainbow lightning bolts that shot out from his scales, along with some thick, mucous fluid. His eyes were bloodshot, almost turning a solid red. At his wit's end, Dirk used the only weapon he had left.

"CALLIOPE!"

***

Calliope helped Dirk out of the shower and to the doctors. Her skin was still covered with the slimy fluid, her bloodshot eyes mixing green with the red. She occasionally glanced at him, embarrassed, unused to being so close to a naked human. Dirk couldn't help but wonder if she was disgusted by the alien anatomy. Caliborn tried to act like he was, but it was very clear he was curious.

She was also confused. She hated being awoken. Dirk imagined it was something like being woken up by an alarm clock, but much more psychological. The names of cherubim seem to be instinctual; the scientists believe they are less "names" and more a series of noises every cherub has hidden away in their subconscious, a sort of "key" to their personality that every cherub is born with. The biological advantages are questionable, but the names prove to be beneficial in human interactions with Caliborn.

Calliope was escorted out as Dirk was ushered into surgery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I don't post very often. Work is killer, man.


	5. Chapter 5

_From the desk of J. English, Board of Directors_

Uncle Harley always told me about this guy, Egbert. Of course, now I know we were related, but then, he was just some distant war hero. Someone out of a movie. He didn't get a movie, not even a mention in a history book. As far as I know, there are only a few who remember him, despite having a whole fucking hospital dedicated to him. I'm writing this as a testament to him.

Uncle met him while they were in Japan, trying to take care of the Tokyo Incident. He was a great guy. Air force, always smiling. He mostly took care of the victims of the Incident and prepared meals for the soldiers. He was not the fighting type, was really a medic, specialized in whatever Air Force medics are specialized in. Uncle said he was always smiling and telling jokes, even when things were at their worst. Until the German came in.

They carried him in on stretchers. His arm had been torn clean off, deep gashes in his face. There was a trail of red where they came from. Egbert worked day and night, but he was no surgeon. He stopped the bleeding, sealed of the wound, administered antibiotics. The German had bad English and Egbert had bad German, but he would sit by the cot day and night and tell the German jokes, hear about his family and tried to understand as much as he could. They couldn't get the man airlifted out, not with that creature on the loose. It would hear the copter and hunt them down.

The German burned a fever for three days before he died. Egbert was devastated. He spent hours feeding this man pills, performing CPR, trying to breathe life back into a dead man. Egbert was too good of a man to see death.

The last anyone saw him, he had taken a claw hammer, was screaming about killing The Monster. They tried to stop him, they really did, but he just swung that hammer around and bolted. Guns were laying right in his reach as he ran, but he was too frenzied to even care.

Five days later they found a hammer covered in red. Uncle pleaded for a full investigation, claimed this death was more important than any other in the battle. Eventually, he got a DNA test. None of the blood on the hammer was human.

Now Egbert's dead, Uncle's dying, and I'm in the asscrack of Alaska raising children and protecting the same damn creature that did this, THE EXACT SAME CREATURE. As soon as the old man croaks, I'm having them executed. For Egbert.

Hopefully someone finds this years after I'm gone. Please, publish it.

Signed,

Jake English  
JE


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the Hiatus!!! Work, school, yada yada yada. Not that many people read this anyway.

Something was off. When Calliope woke up, she didn't find chaos. Their room was as neat and tidy as she left it. She went over to the perpetual chess game. No new moves. What was he up to?

She did something that she had never dared to do before, and opened her brothers sketch boOHMYGODTHISISAWFUL.

but still, no large projects he would waste his days on. What was going on. One of her "handlers", as so-called doctor, Came to greet her. She tried to act like nothing was wrong. "Hello, Jane," she said. "Calli, we know," Jane said. Calliope stood, confused. Know what? Are they blaming her for whatever her brother is up to? It wouldn't be the first time. "Well, I suppose that means you know more than I do, on account of me knowing practically nothing!" Said Calliope. Jane sat down on a couch. "Calliope," she started, "Your brother didn't wake up last night."

***

There were children in Veil, as much as it might surprise some. Well, no proper children, but teenagers. Researchers just couldn't up and leave their young family behind. And, like any children, these poor souls were subjected to the torment of school.

Rose and Dave sat in the back of World History. If one was unobservant, they would believe that rose was taking notes, when in actuality she was writing a snarry shitfic. Dave was trying to look as if he didn't care, pretending to sleep behind his shades, although he had already read the chapter and was listening intently. Good grades and good looks are hard to maintain.

The bell rang. School's out for the weekend. As they were leaving, Dave heard the teacher call out, "Remember, next week is recent history, we will be covering The Tokyo Incident."


End file.
